Mother’s Days in my childhood were filled with trips to super-crowded brunch spots and/or showering my mom with homemade cards with my sisters while my dad presented her with a potted plant from the local farm stand. These days were lovely, and the memory of them brings a smile to my face. But thanks to my husband, I have found an even better way to celebrate Mother’s Day since becoming a mom. He started us on a tradition of a big family outing to a new location every Mother’s Day. Without fail, these trips have made Mother’s Day one of my favorite memories of each year.
If you’re looking to be a bit more adventurous this Mother’s Day, look into some of these unique ways to celebrate Mother’s Day in Central Mass:
The Discovery Museum (Acton)
This fun space in Acton provides a wide array of hands-on science experiments and kid-sized imagination play spaces. It also boasts a gigantic tree house with some truly unique slides and climbing areas. It’s a great place to spend a day playing with your kids! Downtown Acton has plenty of cute spots to book brunch or lunch before or after you play. For a simpler plan, you could bring a picnic to eat at one of the tables on the grounds of the museum if the weather cooperates.
Tip: Reserve tickets ahead of time. The museum has timed entry, and spots fill up quickly.
Favorite Features: This space has spots for both bigger kids and younger kiddos to play. It also has a very cozy nursing spot for any moms with very little ones.
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill (Boylston)
This sprawling nature wonderland in Boylston offers lots of different ways to enjoy a beautiful May day. There are flower gardens to stroll through, a field to run through, greenhouses to peruse, hiking trails, and lots of beautiful fountains. There’s also a great kids’ play area way up in the back that includes a playhouse, a tunnel, and rocks to climb on.
Make it a Picnic: If you would like to include a meal in your outing, there’s a delicious café on site. Alternatively, you can enjoy a gorgeous picnic with your family alongside lots of other families. Picnics are allowed on the lawns around the formal gardens. Bring your own blanket!
DeCordova Sculpture Park (Lincoln)
Set on the grounds of an old mansion, this park is full of beautiful and eclectic sculptures dotted along winding paths, woven through beautiful gardens, and sprinkled across rolling fields. Bring a blanket and some lunch, and have a lovely, cozy family picnic before strolling the grounds and exploring all the sculptures.
Bonus: This spot has some truly gorgeous spots to take family photos.
The EcoTarium (Worcester)
This spot in Worcester is part museum, part nature park. The main building has lots of hands-on exhibits for exploring nature, science, and geography. Paths throughout the grounds will lead you to enclosures to check out animals like snakes, mountain lions, otters, and bald eagles. For extra add-ons on top of admission, you can check out a planetarium show or take a train ride through the whole property.
There’s a small menu of lunch items for purchase on-site. There are also both indoor and outdoor seating areas for eating lunch from home, as well as picnic tables around the grounds.
Tip: Consider packing backup clothes for everyone and wear your rain boots!
Favorite Feature: There’s a nature play area with unique climbing features, a sand pit, a mud kitchen, and a small brook to wade through. This is a great spot to go play if you’re an outdoor kind of family.
Trombetta Farm (Marlborough)
Treat mom and the whole family to a round of mini-golf. This indoor course in Marlborough is short enough to keep little kids entertained but has enough complex holes to provide a fun challenge to even the adults. The course is attached to an ice cream stand with some very excellent flavors to reward everyone for a good game afterwards
Bonus: There is a wide variety of plants and flowers for sale, so you can treat mom to something beautiful to take home.
Important Hack:
Save yourself some money! Check your local library for its museum pass program. Libraries offer discount passes and coupons for several museums and gardens available for checkout. You just need to plan a few days ahead and reserve one. If you strike out at your local library for any of the above options, don’t despair! All public libraries in Central Massachusetts are part of the CW/MARS (Central and Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing) Library Network, which means the card to your local library has reciprocity with all of them. If you cannot find your desired museum pass at your local library, check ones in the surrounding towns, and you are likely to find one.
An Important Consideration for Making Mom’s Day:
This note goes out to the Mother’s Day planners—whether you are a husband, a wife treating her wife to a special day, or a loved one pampering a single mom. It’s no secret that parenting comes with a tremendous mental load and that in a lot of families, mom takes the lion’s share of the load. I’ve loved every one of the above adventures for the reasons I described.
But my husband also enhances my enjoyment every time by designing the day around relieving me of all planning duties. He handles everything. The reservations, food, diaper bags, water bottles, dinner for when we return, etc. In a moment of true heroism, one chilly year, he even brought an oversized backpack so that he could collect the kids’ coats when they inevitably shed them along our journey! Thanks to this, I always get to truly enjoy all of these outings and really have the chance to be present and dive into enjoying time with my children because my day is worry-free and without stress.
If you are planning one of these fun outings, go the extra mile and treat the mom in your life to a day off from meeting anyone else’s needs. I promise she will love it! Whatever you do to celebrate Mother’s Day, I hope all the mothers, grandmothers, and mom figures out there have a joyful and fun day!
